Sidebottom seamlessly swaps Berkswell for Bears

Sport director Ashley Giles believes the recent flurry of recruitment at Warwickshire has provided important early momentum as the reshaping of the first-team squad gathers pace.

Fast bowler Ryan Sidebottom harvested match figures of six for 70 on his County Championship debut to help Bears to a 190-run win over Middlesex, while Adam Hose and Dominic Sibley, signed from Somerset and Surrey respectively, made an immediate impact with the bat in the NatWestT20Blast.

Sidebottom’s abrupt emergence came after he impressed with Berkswell in the Birmingham League. And such links with local cricket, alongside home-grown players like Matt Lamb, Aaron Thomason and Sunny Singh, supplemented by recruiting the likes of Hose and Sibley, form the collective recruitment strategy that Bears now have in place.

“A big part of my role is bringing the right people into Edgbaston and I certainly believe we are doing that with the signings we have made recently,” said Giles. “Adam, Dominic and Ryan will all add to our squad in the coming months and years.

“I have always said if the right people, with the right skills and the right characters to bring to Edgbaston, are in the market then we should be interested in them. One thing we wanted to do was try to act early and certainly with Sibley and Hose we have done that. It’s very pleasing that we have brought in two guys with such high potential.

“It’s also great to have Ryan on board and I have to say thank you to his club Berkswell who released him to be in the squad for his debut at Lord’s. Those relationships with clubs are really important to us because that’s where some of the next batch of Warwickshire cricketers should be coming from.”